Hermes Lindy 30 CM Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Gold Hardware 47 Chocolate

Brown bags age better than any other colour, and Chocolate is the most honest brown in the range: rich, slightly reddish in sunlight, and impossible to stain in a way anyone would notice. My Lindy 30 in Chocolate has been rained on, sat on the floor of a cafe and carried for three seasons, and it simply looks better than the day it arrived.

Clemence’s thick grain is what makes that possible. It is a working leather – spongy, matte, quick to forgive – and with gold hardware the brown warms up beautifully, the way good leather always does on a favourite belt. The Lindy shape folds softly at the top and settles against the hip when you use the strap.

Space: thirty centimetres wide, nineteen tall, sixteen deep. It takes a tablet, a make-up bag, a paperback, a water bottle and still closes with the flap over. The two outside pockets are perfect for a phone on silent and a folded receipt in the other.

Honest note: this leather softens to the point that the bag can look deflated if it is empty – store it stuffed. And in heavy rain, water darkens the surface temporarily; it dries back evenly in my experience, but I would not stand in a storm with it.

If you want a bag that improves with careless love, this is the colour and leather combination to choose.